Ted Lindsay, 1925-2019

Unlike the actor, from Nutley, New Jersey, who starred on Baretta, Ted Lindsay was born with the name Robert Blake. Also unlike that Robert Blake, Lindsay never killed anybody.

But he was tough, as a generation of hockey players found out. That was on the ice. Off the ice, he was tough when he had to be, and nice when that was called for.

Robert Blake Theodore Lindsay was born on July 29, 1925 in Renfrew, Ontario, west of Ottawa, and grew up far to the north, in Kirkland Lake, Ontario. I can find no reference to why he used "Ted" for Theodore, instead of "Bob" or "Bobby" for Robert, and it wasn't until 2004 that he legally changed his name to "Ted."

A left wing, he won the Memorial Cup, the championship of Canadian junior hockey, with the Oshawa Generals in 1944. That got the attention of the Detroit Red Wings, and he made his NHL debut the following season, 1944-45. The Wings reached the Stanley Cup Finals that season.

In 1946, Gordie Howe arrived on the Wings. He on the right, and Lindsay on the left, centered the veteran Sid Abel on a forward line. Tapping into Detroit's reputation as the world's leading automobile-building center, they became known as the Production Line. In 1947, he played in the 1st official NHL All-Star Game.

The Wings reached the Finals again on 1948 and 1949, but lost both times. In 1950, Lindsay led the NHL in scoring, winning the Art Ross Trophy with 23 goals and a League-leading 55 assists for 78 points, playing in 69 of the season's 70 regular season games.

Despite losing Howe to a nearly-fatal head injury (he returned the next season), the Wings got to the Finals again, and beat the New York Rangers on Game 7, on a double overtime goal by Pete Babando.

Lindsay started a tradition: Previously, the President of the NHL (Clarence Campbell at this point) had the Cup put on a table on the ice, and he handed it to the winning team's Captain, who held it up for photographs, and then it was put on the ice, and there was a team photo, and that was it. Lindsay -- Abel was still the Captain -- was the 1st player to pick the Cup up and skate around the ice with it, to let the fans have a closer look at it, what's known in English soccer as a "lap of honour."

"I recognized who was paying my salary," he said. "It wasn't the owners. I saw all the people sitting there, so I picked it up and took it to them." 
Lindsay was just 5-foot-8, and was listed at 168 pounds during his career, but was one of the toughest players in the game: "When I put my skates on, I'm 6-foot5." He earned the nickname "Terrible Ted" -- and, eventually, "Old Scarface," less because they thought he was as mean as 1920s Chicago gangster Al Capone, who was also known as "Scarface," but because the hazards of the game had rendered it literally true. Longtime team doctor John Finley said, "Terrible Ted had a face only a hockey mom could love."

The NHL tried to rein him in, instituting penalties for "elbowing" and "kneeing." But you know the old saying: "It ain't cheating if you don't get caught," and players continue to do those things today, when they think they can get away with it.

"I hated everybody I played against, and they hated me," he said. "That's the way hockey should be played."

Later, he said, "I've been slashed, speared, elbowed, board-checked, butt-ended and hit on the head as much as anyone. I just like to keep the ledger balanced."

In 1952, the Wings did something that had never been done before: With 2 rounds of Playoffs, each a best-4-out-of-7, they swept to the Cup in the minimum 8 games, beating first the Wings, then the Canadiens.

Pete Cusimano, owner of a local fish market, noted that an octopus has 8 legs, 1 for each necessary win. So he brought an octopus from his store to the Wings' arena, the Olympia Stadium, and threw it onto the ice. This started a rather disgusting tradition that the NHL has tried, without much success, to curb. It has been copied in other cities: Boston with lobster, Edmonton with steak, San Jose with a leopard shark (bigger than most of these, but smaller than most sharks), Nashville with catfish. (Did I mention that the tradition was disgusting?)

At any rate, the Wings completed the 8-game sweep. Only once more, in the 2-round structure of the Playoffs before the 1967 expansion, would a team go 8-0 in the Playoffs: The 1960 Canadiens.

After this, Sid Abel retired, and was replaced as the Wings' Captain by Lindsay, and as their top center by another future Hall-of-Famer, Alex Delvecchio. Lindsay-Delvecchio-Howe would become known as Production Line II. Later, after Lindsay had retired, the Wings would acquire another Hall-of-Famer, Frank Mahovlich, from the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Mahvolich-Delvecchio-Howe would be Production Line III.

The Wings lost in the Semifinals in 1953, but beat the Canadiens in the Finals in 1954 and 1955, making it 4 Cups in 6 years. In addition to Howe, Lindsay, Abel and Delvecchio, defensemen Leonard "Red" Kelly and Marcel Pronovost, and goaltender Terry Sawchuk, would all make the Hockey Hall of Fame. In other words, the Wings could field an entire starting lineup of future Hall-of-Famers.

In 1955, Wings coach Jimmy Skinner started another tradition: He kissed the Cup, and it was caught on film for the official newsreel. Players on the winning team have been kissing the Cup ever since.

The Wings couldn't make it 3 straight Cups in 1956, losing the Finals to the Canadiens, who began a streak of 5 straight Cups. But before that, they had to face the Leafs in the Semifinals. In Game 2 at the Olympia, Howe clobbered Toronto's Tod Sloan. A man who was never identified called one of the Toronto newspapers, and said, "Don't worry about Howe and Lindsay tonight. I'm going to shoot them if they play."

The paper publicized this, and Leafs owner Conn Smythe had police all over Maple Leaf Gardens. Howe and Lindsay played as if nothing was wrong: Ted said, "We figured it was a crank call, and didn't take it seriously."

The Leafs led 4-2 in the 3rd period. Gordie scored to make it 4-3. Ted scored the tying goal late in the 3rd period, and then the winning goal in overtime. As soon as his teammates had finished jumping on him in celebration, he held his stick like a rifle and pretended to shoot it at the fans.
Gordie later said, "We were lucky nobody threw a firecracker, or Ted and I would have dug a foxhole in the ice."

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The 1956-57 season would be Lindsay's 9th as an NHL All-Star. But it would also be the end of the line for him with the Wings. He had become active in the recently-formed NHL Players Association, and league management did what it then did best: It overreacted. On July 23, Wings owner Bruce Norris traded Lindsay and goaltender Glenn Hall to the then-weak Chicago Blackhawks for Johnny Wilson, Forbes Kennedy, Hank Bassen and Bill Preston.

For Hall, the trade made sense: The Wings had Terry Sawchuk, the best goalie in the sport at the time, and Hall thrived in Chicago, becoming a Hall-of-Famer himself. But for Lindsay, it was punishment: Essentially, Norris, one of the biggest jerks in the history of sports team ownership (and that's saying something), was telling him, "I consider union activism so much of a personal insult that I'm sending you to a crap team for 4 nobodies." (Wilson was a decent left wing, but center Kennedy and goalie Bassen were career backups, and Preston never played a shift in the NHL.)

It got worse: Jack Adams, general manager of the Wings, told the media that Lindsay had made defamatory comments against his old team, and showed them a fake contract, with a salary far higher than he had actually been paid.

Lindsay sued. The case could have broken the NHL wide open, especially since the Norris family also held the mortgages on Chicago Stadium, the Boston Garden, and even that era's Madison Square Garden -- effectively making Bruce Norris the most powerful American in hockey. Norris' lawyers told him to settle. In February 1958, he did: Most of the union's demands were met, and the accusations against Lindsay were retracted.

Lindsay played 3 seasons in Chicago, and retired. CKLW-Channel 9, a TV station affiliated with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, transmitting from across the Detroit River from Detroit in Windsor, Ontario (it's now CBET), gave him his initial entry into hockey media, with a hockey-themed talk show on Saturday night, which preceded their broadcast of the CBC's most popular program, Hockey Night In Canada.

In 1964, with an aging Adams forced out (he died in 1968), Abel was now the Wings' GM, and brought Ted out of retirement for 1 more season. NHL President Clarence Campbell didn't think he could do it: "This is the blackest day in hockey history, when a 39-year-old man thinks he can make a comeback in the world's fastest sport."

Ted played in 69 out of 70 games, scored 14 goals, and assisted on 14 others. The Wings finished with the League's best overall record. Campbell conceded: "This is one of the most amazing feats in professional sports. I didn't think it could be done. He has to be rated a truly amazing athlete." Ted then retired for good, with 379 career goals and 472 assists, for 851 points.

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He moved back into broadcasting, calling games for the Rangers on New York's WOR-Channel 9. His tagline was seeing someone getting away with a good hit with a stick, and saying, "That's laying the lumber on 'em!" From 1972 to 1977, he called games nationally for NBC. From 1977 to 1981, with he and Norris apparently having buried the hatchet, he was named general manager of the Wings. He was named NHL Executive of the Year in 1978, and even served as both GM and head coach in 1980.

In 1966, Ted was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. But when he found out that wives and children were not invited to the induction ceremony, he boycotted it. This was terribly embarrassing for the Hall, and the rule was changed for the next year. Ted and his wife Joanne never missed a ceremony until her death in 2017. Ted had a son Blake, daughters Lynn and Meredith, and a stepdaughter Lesli. He lived to see 6 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.

In 1991, the Wings retired his Number 7. In 1998, The Hockey News ranked him 21st on their list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. In 2002, he was elected to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. In 2004, Canada Post issued a stamp with his picture on it. To put that in perspective: The U.S. Postal Service waits 10 years after a person's death before considering them for a stamp. (Exceptions are made for Presidents, whose stamps get issued the year after their deaths.)

In 2008, a statue of him was dedicated at Joe Louis Arena, and it was moved to the Little Caesars Arena in 2017. That year, as part of the NHL's 100th Anniversary celebrations, he was named one of the League's 100 Greatest Players.
In 2010, in recognition of his actions in establishing the NHL Players Association, the NHLPA renamed the Lester B. Pearson Award, which had been named for Canada's Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963, the Ted Lindsay Award. While the Hart Memorial Trophy, the NHL's official most valuable player award (which he never won), is voted on by sportswriters, the Pearson/Lindsay Award is voted on by the players.

He became active in children's charities. In 2001, along with a friend, John Czarnecki, whose son Dominic had autism, he founded the Ted Lindsay Foundation, to study the condition in the hopes of finding a cure.

Ted Lindsay lived to see the Wings win the Stanley Cup 4 more times, in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008. He died this past Monday, March 4, 2019, in the Detroit suburb of Oakland, Michigan. He was 93 years old.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman -- no friend of the NHLPA -- said, "One of the game’s fiercest competitors during his 17-season NHL career, he was among its most beloved ambassadors throughout the more than five decades of service to hockey that followed his retirement."

Nicklas Lidstrom, Red Wings Hall-of-Famer: "A fierce competitor and a true gentleman off the ice. I will forever remember the conversations I had with this great man."

Pavel Datsyuk, recently retired Red Wings star: "World lost a legend Ted Lindsay. Ted was always kind, modest and a total role model. Rest In Peace my friend!"

Chris Chelios, Blackhawks and Red Wings Hall-of-Famer: "I'll never forget our conversations and what he meant to me. He was a mentor."

Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils Hall-of-Famer: "Sad to hear about the passing of the great Ted Lindsay. He had a tremendous impact on hockey.  Condolences to Ted’s Family."

Eric Lindros, Philadelphia Flyers Hall-of-Famer, and a former ombudsman for the NHLPA: "Not to overlook his playing ability but every player that has played pro hockey continues to benefit because of Ted Lindsay’s determination to seek fairness. Thank you Mr Lindsay. Rest In Peace."

Alexander Ovechkin, Captain of the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Washington Capitals: "Obviously it’s hard news. He was a legend in the hockey world. Obviously, I was excited to meet him, and I'm going to remember for all my life."

Bob McKenzie, hockey announcer for TSN, Canada's version of ESPN: "The face and spirit of hockey has left us."

In the headline of his obituary of Ted for the Detroit Free Press, Bill McGraw called him, "A badass on ice, a gentleman off." Given the nature of hockey, that might be the highest possible praise.

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With Ted's death, there are 4 surviving players from the 1950 Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings: Red Kelly, Marty Pavelich, Pete Babando and Doug McKay. There are 5 players left from the 1952 Stanley Cup Champion Red Wings: Kelly, Pavelich, Glenn Hall, Alex Delvecchio and Vic Stasiuk.

There are 5 players left from the 1954 Stanley Cup Champion Red Wings: Kelly, Pavelich, Delvecchio, Stasiuk and Dave Gatherum. And there are 6 players left from the 1955 Stanley Cup Champion Red Wings: Kelly, Pavelich, Delvecchio, Stasiuk, Marcel Bonin and Larry Hillman.

And Howie Meeker, also the last surviving member of the Toronto Maple Leafs' Stanley Cup winners of 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1951, is now the last surviving player from the 1st official NHL All-Star Game in 1947.